DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0492
458 THE AGE OF SCOPAS, PRAXITELES, AND LYSIPPOS.
Olymp. iog. 2. This statue seems to have remained long in Athens, but to
have been removed later to Byzantium, there, with many other masterpieces of
antiquity, to perish. How successfully Scopas represented the raving Maenad
appears from repeated epigrams, as well as from Callistratos' description.
Scopas, it was said, not Dionysos, breathed this divine frenzy into the mar-
ble. Callistratos vividly describes the statue, saying, that in long and flutter-
ing garments, which left only the arms uncovered, with head thrown back, hair
streaming out upon the wind, and swinging, not the thyrsos, but the torn kid,
ghastly in its color, the Maenad seemed to storm by him, eager for the heights
of Kithairon, sacred to the nightly orgies of her god. Among existing monu-
ments, but only in relief, are many which seem remote echoes of such a con-
ception. S97
Scopas' Apollo, originally in the temple at Rhamnus, with Leto and Arte-
mis by other masters, was carried off by Augustus to Rome, and dedicated
to Apollo, on the Palatine, in thanks for the victory at Actium. According to
Propertius, the god in this statue appeared singing and playing. s98 The statue
of a laurel-crowned and lyre-playing Apollo in the Vatican was long supposed
to be a copy of Scopas' conception of the god; but a comparison of it with
coins of Nero shows rather that it has reference to Nero, after his musical
period in Greece. Still less do Augustus' coins, struck in honor of Actium,
correspond to Propertius' description of Scopas' statue; and hence we are left
in ignorance as to the master's personification of music.s99 Two striking heads
of Apollo in the British Museum, having a sentimental turn, with the mouth
open as though singing, and a treatment of hair like that in bronze, piled up
over the brow, are so like the works of the Hellenistic age in character and
detail, that their original inspiration cannot with any certainty be traced back
to Scopas' Apollo of the more simple fourth century. Thus our knowledge of
Scopas' activity in and about Athens is most fragmentary.
Concerning some of his creations in Asia Minor, we have more definite
data. For the Troad, he executed a colossal statue, probably in gold and
ivory, of Apollo Smintheus, crowned with laurel-leaves, and standing with one
foot on a mouse-hole, out of which peeped a mouse, the sacred animal of the
place. The ruins of the temple have been discovered; but, as a matter of
course, no trace of the statue was left.9°°
At Cnidos, a Dionysos and an Athena by Scopas are thrown quite into
the shade by Praxiteles' Aphrodite, concerning which the reports are much
fuller.901
In Bithynia was originally one of Scopas' great works, which was taken to
Rome by Cn. Domitius about 30 B.C., and put up there by the conqueror in a
temple to Neptune, raised in honor of his triumphs. This was a work in
which, according to Pliny, appeared Poseidon himself, Achilles, and Thetis,
besides Nereids riding on dolphins, sea-animals, seated hippocamps, tritons, the
Olymp. iog. 2. This statue seems to have remained long in Athens, but to
have been removed later to Byzantium, there, with many other masterpieces of
antiquity, to perish. How successfully Scopas represented the raving Maenad
appears from repeated epigrams, as well as from Callistratos' description.
Scopas, it was said, not Dionysos, breathed this divine frenzy into the mar-
ble. Callistratos vividly describes the statue, saying, that in long and flutter-
ing garments, which left only the arms uncovered, with head thrown back, hair
streaming out upon the wind, and swinging, not the thyrsos, but the torn kid,
ghastly in its color, the Maenad seemed to storm by him, eager for the heights
of Kithairon, sacred to the nightly orgies of her god. Among existing monu-
ments, but only in relief, are many which seem remote echoes of such a con-
ception. S97
Scopas' Apollo, originally in the temple at Rhamnus, with Leto and Arte-
mis by other masters, was carried off by Augustus to Rome, and dedicated
to Apollo, on the Palatine, in thanks for the victory at Actium. According to
Propertius, the god in this statue appeared singing and playing. s98 The statue
of a laurel-crowned and lyre-playing Apollo in the Vatican was long supposed
to be a copy of Scopas' conception of the god; but a comparison of it with
coins of Nero shows rather that it has reference to Nero, after his musical
period in Greece. Still less do Augustus' coins, struck in honor of Actium,
correspond to Propertius' description of Scopas' statue; and hence we are left
in ignorance as to the master's personification of music.s99 Two striking heads
of Apollo in the British Museum, having a sentimental turn, with the mouth
open as though singing, and a treatment of hair like that in bronze, piled up
over the brow, are so like the works of the Hellenistic age in character and
detail, that their original inspiration cannot with any certainty be traced back
to Scopas' Apollo of the more simple fourth century. Thus our knowledge of
Scopas' activity in and about Athens is most fragmentary.
Concerning some of his creations in Asia Minor, we have more definite
data. For the Troad, he executed a colossal statue, probably in gold and
ivory, of Apollo Smintheus, crowned with laurel-leaves, and standing with one
foot on a mouse-hole, out of which peeped a mouse, the sacred animal of the
place. The ruins of the temple have been discovered; but, as a matter of
course, no trace of the statue was left.9°°
At Cnidos, a Dionysos and an Athena by Scopas are thrown quite into
the shade by Praxiteles' Aphrodite, concerning which the reports are much
fuller.901
In Bithynia was originally one of Scopas' great works, which was taken to
Rome by Cn. Domitius about 30 B.C., and put up there by the conqueror in a
temple to Neptune, raised in honor of his triumphs. This was a work in
which, according to Pliny, appeared Poseidon himself, Achilles, and Thetis,
besides Nereids riding on dolphins, sea-animals, seated hippocamps, tritons, the